Former foodstuffs as animal feed: rules, limits, documents

The EU Catalogue of feed materials (Regulation (EU) No 68/2013 as amended) defines former foodstuffs in Part A, point 3 of the Annex as foodstuffs, other than catering reflux, which were manufactured for human consumption in full compliance with EU food law but which are no longer intended for human consumption for practical or logistical reasons or due to problems of manufacturing or packaging defects or other defects — and which do not present any health risk when used as feed.

This definition contains three conditions. First: the goods were a food and were lawfully manufactured as such. Material that was never a food does not qualify. Second: the reason for withdrawal is practical, logistical or quality-related — an exceeded or too short best-before date, deviation from specification, mislabelling, damaged packaging, overproduction, a recipe change. Third: feeding is safe for animal health. That is the condition on which spoiled or contaminated goods fail.

Typical former foodstuffs are bakery products, pasta, confectionery, chocolate, breakfast cereals, snacks, sugar and starch products, milk powder and beverage concentrates — but equally raw materials such as flour, oils or syrups that are no longer used in the food business. A practical interpretative aid is the European Commission's notice “Guidelines for the feed use of food no longer intended for human consumption” (2018/C 133/02).

The limits follow from feed law, from animal by-products law and from the definition itself:

The Feed Hygiene Regulation requires feed business operators to have their establishments registered with the competent authority (Art. 9 Regulation (EC) No 183/2005). This concerns not only compound feed manufacturers and traders, but also the food business that itself places former foodstuffs on the market as feed: with that supply it becomes a feed business operator for this activity. The Commission guidelines also describe the second route: if the food business supplies the goods as food to a registered feed business operator who reassigns them to feed, the feed chain only begins there — and the food business needs no registration of its own. Approval in the narrower sense is not required in either case; that is reserved for certain activities involving additives and premixtures (Art. 10).

Registration runs through the competent national feed authority; the procedure and any fee vary by Member State. Registration brings with it the Regulation's requirements for hygiene, records and traceability and — for all stages after primary production — procedures based on HACCP principles. A food business already has these systems; the task is to map the feed stream within them: as a separate article with its own intended purpose, not as a remnant of the food article.

Every trader and every mill that takes over the goods as feed is a feed business operator and must be registered. The first thing a feed mill therefore asks a new supplier is whether they are registered or are supplying the goods as food — and for evidence that a private standard such as QS or GMP+ is complied with, if the mill itself works to one.

Traceability under Art. 18 Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 applies to feed as it does to food: one step back, one step forward. For every lot supplied, origin, batch identification, quantity, date and recipient must be traceable. The moment a food becomes feed is a change of intended purpose — it belongs in the records, for instance through a rebooking in the inventory system with date and reason.

Labelling is governed by Regulation (EC) No 767/2009. Former foodstuffs supplied as feed materials need the particulars under Art. 15 and 16: the type of feed, name and address of the feed business operator responsible for labelling, the batch reference number, the net quantity, the name according to the Catalogue of feed materials and the mandatory declarations of analytical constituents under Annex V or the Catalogue; an approval number only if one exists. For bulk goods these particulars go in the accompanying documents. For goods that are at the same time animal by-products, the commercial document under Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 is added.

Before a former foodstuff is fed, the packaging must be removed. This can happen at the producer, but is rarely economical for individual lots. More often, specialised unpacking businesses or feed mills with their own unpacking line take on the work. Such mills are set up for packaged goods and price the unpacking effort into their offer.

How expensive unpacking is depends on the packaging: small units such as bars, sachets or portion packs are more laborious than sacks, big bags, cartons with liners or bulk goods. For the valuation of a lot, therefore, not only the product matters but equally the type of packaging, palletisation and whether the goods are of a single kind. A lot that mixes several products and packaging types is more work for the mill and correspondingly worth less.

A feed mill buys by nutritional value and by safety. It must be able to read both from your documents before the goods arrive on site. Every mill asks about these points:

For buyers, the same list applies in reverse: this is what you should require from a supplier of former foodstuffs before accepting a lot. Anyone working to QS or GMP+ needs these details for supplier approval anyway.